It is that time of year again. Every retail specialist, ninja, guru and rockstar comes up with their list of their top predictions for the upcoming year. Some of these lists are over the top and bold, most are boring and lack any type of insight. At Hubba, we take pride in our top retail trends and construct them with care. This year, keeping with tradition, we decided to come up with our guaranteed accurate Top 10 Retail Trends for 2015!

1. Some marketing company or software vendor will come up with a new term that every talks about but nobody really understands.

Our vote for 2015 is MegaHyperGiga-Channel Commerce. Keep an eye out for the blog posts, tweets and business plans from those ‘in the know’ that want to show how leading-edge they are. (note: we are just as guilty of this as anybody, read this post about our new coined term, Ultraprise.)

2. CEOs will continue to learn that leaving technology strategy to Edwin in the IT department vs. making it core to the executive job is a BIG mistake.

Just ask Gregg Steinhafel or the dozens of other CEOs this year that will learn that innovation and security are as intertwined with their job as any other management function.

3. Drones and other robots will not be taking over your jobs.

At least, not yet.

4. A large portion of the CIOs and CMOs reading this article will not be in their current roles at this time next year.

You can almost hear everyone reading this saying “That won’t be me”. We hope it’s not but the stats are against you. Both CIOs and CMOs have the lowest tenure of senior executives at around 4 years.

5. The importance of Digital will be over-estimated.

Be prepared for another wave of retailers doing new and innovative things. This is awesome. However, most innovation projects are just that, projects. They are rarely ingrained in the core aspects of the business. That cool mobile app you built is pretty sweet, but it isn’t going to move the needle for you unless you roll it into an overarching strategy instead of just a PR move.

6. The importance of Digital will be under-estimated.

Be prepared for most retailers to continue to stick their head in the sand. They will continue to solely focus on their real world operation without taking advantage of the existing benefits of the digital world. More importantly, by failing to invest now, retailers will find it more costly and less effective when the digital tsunami arrives on their shores.

7. Queue the cuteness

There is only so much augmented reality, touch screens, gesture controls that shoppers can handle. Although these technologies seem cool, their real benefit comes when they enhance the business. I love great technology experiments, but stop being cute and start being impactful. Real results are far more impressive.

8. People like shopping in their underwear at home, but that won’t stop them from coming into your store.

Online shopping is complimentary to real life shopping. It should be encouraged. You should also encourage shoppers to put pants on if they are moving from the virtual world to the real-world and coming into your store.

9. Retailers will realize that Showrooming and Webrooming will really still just be ‘Shopping’.

This battle needs to end. The successful retailers will be the ones who use data to understand where these two concepts fit within their customer’s path to purchase and then exploit it as best they can.

10. Retailers will continue to over-value the importance of their technology investment in the short-term but undervalue its importance in the long-term.

Technology is not the lifeline that will save your company in stormy seas. It is the sturdy ship you build to successfully circumnavigate the world for years to come.

We would love to hear your thoughts on what the top retail trends are for this year.